Cheering Censorship

Officials at Revere High School in Massachusetts have banned Caley Godino, one of the school's head cheerleaders, from cheering after other students complained about a political remark she made. Godino was watching a presidential debate as part of a class assignment when her teacher tweeted about the low turnout for a recent mayoral race. Godino responded that only 10 percent voted for mayor because 90 percent of the city's residents aren't legal. School officials said she should have known they would punish her for that. "If you are going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive, then you need to be prepared to deal with the ramifications of that," said Superintendent Dianne Kelley.

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If a school district is going to blatantly violate the first amendment rights of its students, it had better be prepared to face the ramifications of that. I hope she sues, and the court orders 1A training for all teachers and administrators in the school district — they clearly have no clue about their students’ rights.

Kicked off the cheerleading squad for cracking a joke… This is toxic. The cauldron from with the anti free speech social justice warriors have sprung began not in college but rather in kindergarten, raised under the control of ever more interventionist, bureaucratic, brainless, heartless “zero tolerance” principals, teachers and school boards.

If I had young kids today I would be willing to sacrifice a lot to keep them away from the individuality-crushing, mind-numbing, control-heavy monster that public school has become.

From what I am reading here the remark took place outside of school hours, not on school property and through a medium not under the school’s control. Sounds like state agents using the power of the state to punish wrongthink, which means good lawsuit material.

Godino responded that only 10 percent voted for mayor because 90 percent of the city’s residents aren’t legal. School officials said she should have known they would punish her for that. “If you are going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive, then you need to be prepared to deal with the ramifications of that,” said Superintendent Dianne Kelley.

Is this now the norm? If not, we’re well on the way. Just three years ago this was a conception of radical feminism, that according to Rebecca Watson and her ilk your right to free speech ends at someone else’s ear. That your right to free speech ended when someone took offense to what you said.

Look at where these absurd, unConstitutional standards are taking root: in areas overwhelmingly dominated by women and by feminist doctrine. Colleges and universities are the worst. Secondary education is not far behind. Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn have gone to the U.N. in the hopes of suppressing internet speech because regularly hearing “you suck” is, well, exhausting.

The “reasonable person” standard is disappearing with regard to speech, and is being replaced by “the most easily offended person” standard. The left used to reliably oppose any and all attempts at censorship. Now the left is in the vanguard of attempts to censor. We are in very real trouble.